Archive for the 'New Orleans & Louisiana' Category
Marriott New Orleans and other hotels offer ‘Papa Noel’ deals
November 16, 2009 5:59am
With sleigh bells ringing –– and surely an appetite for etouffee –– Papa Noel (that’s Santa Claus to us out-of-towners) is readying himself for a holiday destination guaranteed to be brimful with festive cheer.
Boasting a full holiday calendar in December, New Orleans will be offering its visitors free jazz and gospel cathedral concerts; caroling; themed meals and free cooking demonstrations; and the nightly Celebration of the Oaks tour in City Park.
And, as has become tradition, numerous hotels about town are offering “Papa Noel” rates for December stays. For a full list of participants, see the Christmas pages on New Orleans’ tourism site. One such deal, by New Orleans Marriott, is detailed below.
Deal: This Marriott, located on Canal Street in the French Quarter, is offering “Papa Noel” rates from $89 to $159 per night (pretax) for stays Dec. 1-24, 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
Hurricane Ida: Airline advisories, travel waiver information [Updated]
November 9, 2009 2:07pm
Hurricane Ida weakened to a tropical storm today after the U.S. Gulf Coast braced itself for more troubling weather. In Nicaragua last week, Hurricane Ida destroyed homes, damaged schools and bridges as it moved through the Caribbean. Currently, the National Hurricane Center has a public advisory on its site.
“A tropical storm warning remains in effect from Grand Isle Louisiana eastward to the Aucilla River Florida … including New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain.”
[Updated at 9 a.m. Nov. 10: Ida made landfall in Alabama but has weakened considerably and was headed toward the northeast, the National Hurricane Center said.]
U.S. airlines are alerting travelers that flights may be affected in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi. Here are some change policies listed on their websites:
Delta: States that you may make a one-time change to your ticket without fee if you are scheduled to travel to, from, or through the following destinations: Fort Walton, Fla. (VPS), Gulfport, Miss. (GPT), Mobile, Ala. (MOB), New Orleans, La. (MSY), Panama City, Fla. (PFN), Pensacola, Fla. (PNS) and Tallahassee, Fla. (TLH) for impacted travel on Nov. 9-10. Read the Delta Weather Alert page for Hurricane Ida for full details and restrictions. Contact: (800) 221-1212.
Continental: Offers the option to reschedule or re-route your travel once, without penalty, if you are ticketed to/from one of these cities with original travel dates on Nov. 9-11: New Orleans, La. (MSY), Baton Rouge, La. (BTR), Lafayette, La. (LFT), Lake Charles, La. (LCH), Gulfport/Biloxi, Miss. (GPT), Mobile, Ala. (MOB), Pensacola, Fla. (PNS), Fort Walton Beach, Fla. (VPS). If your flight has been cancelled, a refund to the original form of payment can be requested. Get full information about their re-accommodations policy here.
National World War II Museum rallies the troops, plus Tom Hanks, for premiere
November 6, 2009 10:14am
Everyone from war veterans to movie luminaries are rallying today, Nov. 6, in New Orleans to inaugurate the expanded National World War II Museum, which has doubled in size and added a theater with a film experience that promises to plunge visitors into the wartime world, complete with (fake) falling snowflakes, seats that shudder as munitions explode and other special effects.
Among today’s attendees is Tom Hanks, executive producer and narrator of the 35-minute movie “Beyond All Boundaries” (photo above), which will screen at the museum’s new theater. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Patricia Clarkson, Neil Patrick Harris, Brad Pitt and many others.
Today’s events were sold out, museum spokeswoman Kacey Hill said. But there was still plenty of room on Saturday, dubbed “Family Fun Day,” when a range of free activities will be offered, she added. Here’s the 411:
From haunted houses to ‘Hell on Earth’: Where to get scared in the U.S. this Halloween
October 10, 2009 11:19am
For you lovers of gory lore, creeps and costumes, and the ghostly paranormal, this is your season. In this day and age, it takes a lot to tingle the spines and curdle the blood of the public, but these Halloween attractions in the U.S. seem set to spook, and entertain, even those with the thickest of skin.
Haunted houses
At the top of the “America’s best haunted houses 2009″ list released by trade publication HauntWorld Magazine is 13th Gate in Baton Rouge, La. The 40,000-square-foot attraction may have you “crawling thought a Crematory oven and an old hearse” or “standing on a rickety bridge overlooking hundreds of live snakes,” according to the attraction’s website, and they even advise that those with preexisting heart conditions, women who are pregnant or anyone with a weak bladder should not visit.
Other haunted houses ranked highly by HauntWorld include Netherworld Haunted House in Atlanta, the Beast in Kansas City, Mo., and House of Torment in Austin, Texas. Read the rest of this entry »
Theme park news: Legoland water park, Real Madrid theme park, Wizarding World DVD extras, Neverland negotiations
September 12, 2009 5:58am
A roundup of my theme park Twitter updates for the last week:
* Legoland California to open a separate-admission, 5.5-acre water park by summer 2010. (L.A. Times)
* Built in 1927 and rebuilt in 1948 and 1994, Comet coaster at Great Escape in New York gets American Coaster Enthusiasts landmark designation. (Screamscape)
* DVD extras on “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” movie to include short feature on Wizarding World themed land at Universal Studios Orlando. (Orlando Sentinel)
* Report: Michael Jackson’s family negotiating to open Neverland as a Graceland-like amusement park by Christmas. (New York Post)
* Disney: No plans to use Marvel characters in Orlando parks, no concerns about brand confusion with Universal Studios. (Orlando Sentinel)
Get your third night free at landmark Roosevelt New Orleans
September 2, 2009 6:16pm
The landmark Roosevelt New Orleans, home to the historic Sazerac Bar and the fabled Blue Room where Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and other jazz greats performed, recently opened its doors for the first time since Hurricane Katrina flooded its basement and shut it down in 2005.
Even better, the ornate 1893 structure, after undergoing a $145-million restoration, is making rooms available for as little as $119 per night, plus tax, under its Summer Escape Package. Formerly a Fairmont, it is now a Waldorf Astoria with 504 guest rooms. It is located in downtown New Orleans near the French Quarter.
Deal: Stay two consecutive nights and get your third night for free; two complimentary breakfasts for up to two children age 10 or under; and a discount at the hotel’s gift shop. Subject to availability, the deal is good for stays through Sept. 30. You get the third night’s cost removed from your bill when you check out.
Theme park news: Another Disney World death, Dale Earnhardt coaster, Star Tours 2.0, Say No to B.O.
August 22, 2009 6:02am
A roundup of my theme park Twitter updates for the last week:
* Walt Disney World actor dies during rehearsals for Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Investigators searching for “any pattern” in three Disney World employee deaths this summer. (Orlando Sentinel)
* Video: Kings Dominion in Virginia announces $25-million Dale Earnhardt-themed Intimidator 305 coaster for 2010.
* Katrina-battered Six Flags New Orleans to reopen as Nickelodeon Universe-New Orleans theme and water park by late 2010. Theme Park Insider: Why it won’t work.
* Dollywood’s Splash Country water park in Tennessee announces Slide Rock Racer side-by-side mat racer slide for 2010. (Screamscape)
* Disney dispatches Star Wars storm troopers to guard “imperial dignitaries” at D23 Expo. Is Star Tours 2.0 coming to Disneyland?
Gay & lesbian travel: A carbon-neutral, voluntouristic Caribbean cruise
August 15, 2009 12:00pm
Does guilt ever stop you from booking a cruise? After all, the cruising industry has long had a reputation as a big bad wolf of the eco-world. Then there’s the fact that your week, or weekend, or however long you’ll spend aboard, will be spent in purely self-serving recreation — nary a finger lifted for anyone but buffet-food-grabbing, cocktail-carting you.
That’s just too much indulgence for some of you to handle.
Enter lesbian-travel company Sweet, which is offering a seven-day western Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Spirit, departing New Orleans on Nov. 8. The trip is designed to help even the environmentally conscious do-gooders among you feel absolutely fine about hitting the high seas.
First, the company is billing itself as “carbon-neutral,” planning to offset the voyage with the help of partner Carbonfund.org. The beneficiary of the company’s offsetting practices is a project that aids in reforesting part of a river area in Louisiana that was strip-farmed for cotton, according to Sweet’s website. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Compliment Guys’ begin their 10-city, feel-good tour
July 20, 2009 10:41am
Time to turn that frown upside down and take a cue from the “Compliment Guys.” Purdue University undergraduates Brett Westcott and Cameron Brown, who have a lot of fabulous things to say about just about everything, begin a multi-city cheer-spreading tour today, with the sole mission of helping people look on the bright side.
Last year, according to Lafayette Online, the two stood in the center of campus weekly “giving out free compliments to thousands of passersby. Initial suspicion of their motives quickly melted in the face of their enthusiasm and earnestness.”
“When I started giving compliments on the Purdue campus almost a year ago, I never expected it to be so well received all over the world,” said Westcott, as reported by Lafayette Online. “This trip will allow us to share the same good feelings with people around the country that we have exchanged at Purdue.”
The BrightSide tour begins today in New Orleans. Read the rest of this entry »
Be my guide: Social media travel tips are valuable but limited by the crowd
July 9, 2009 10:10am
View Be My Guide: Cross-country road trip in a larger map
When it comes to collecting travel tips, there’s strength in numbers. For the last two weeks, I have been traveling across the country in my 1999 Pontiac Grand Am and using the collective knowledge of readers and online social-media wanderers to lead the way.
The response was overwhelming —literally, my e-mail in-box could barely hold it all. But the tips were invaluable and led me to hidden gems that AAA or most other travel agencies would never have listed. I’ve put a lot of them on the Google map above.
For many of the 14 cities I visited, locals whispered to me via the Web, pointing me to the underground hot spots. Some of the best suggestions popped up in Chicago, Nashville, Austin and Albuquerque. The pearls in those cities were mostly small, unassuming places outside the usual downtown bar scenes. They’re hidden from the public eye.
